Bangladesh captain Litton Das admitted his side simply "played bad cricket" after a 63 run defeat to Sri Lanka in the Asian Games bronze medal match ended the team's campaign without a single medal.
Sri Lanka, batting first, had slipped to 63 for five inside 13 overs before Tharindu Ratnayake produced a career best 65 off 32 balls, sharing a 93 run stand with captain Sahan Arachchige to drag the total to a defendable 165 for nine.
Mustafizur Rahman was again expensive at the death, conceding 43 runs across three overs, a repeat of his costly semi final spell against Pakistan, while Rishad Hossain leaked 46 from four overs as Sri Lanka added 83 runs between the 14th and 18th overs alone.
It feels bad not to win the bronze. We came here targeting the final. When that did not happen, there was another option. We missed the opportunity.Litton Das, Bangladesh T20 captain
Reflecting on that passage of play at the post match press conference, Litton credited the opposition rather than dwelling solely on his own bowlers.
"We played bad cricket. I felt we bowled well for the first eight overs, then you saw the way a batsman came in and played his shots on a difficult wicket. He batted incredibly, and the bowlers could not find any clue how to make a comeback. You have to give him credit," he said.
Chasing 166, Bangladesh's top three, Saif Hassan, Tanzid Hasan and Litton himself, were all dismissed without scoring, continuing a pattern of top order collapses that had also undone the team against Pakistan in the semi final days earlier.
Litton did not attempt to shift blame for the batting failure either.
"When we went in to bat, we could not cover the runs they had put up in any way. Batting wise, we were not up to the mark today," he said, with the innings eventually folding for 102.
He also addressed the broader disappointment of missing out on any medal after Bangladesh had travelled to Japan with gold as their explicit target.
"It feels bad not to win the bronze. We came here targeting the final. When that did not happen, there was another option. We missed the opportunity," he said.
Litton, who managed just two runs across both knockout matches with the bat, ruled out any thought of stepping down as captain despite his own struggles.
"There are ups and downs in cricket. One day will be good and another bad. So why is there anything to resign as captain for? I am not resigning," he said.